National television network SBS has exclusive broadcasting rights over the Vancouver Olympic Games and also the FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa this summer. / Korea Times

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

National television network SBS will provide exclusive coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Games, which kick off Saturday.

It is the first time that a single television station will be the sole broadcaster of Olympic events here, with the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) failing to settle a dispute between SBS and terrestrial broadcasters KBS and MBC, which had been demanding that SBS resell its broadcast rights.

As a result, KBS and MBC won't be sending any journalists or film crews to cover the sporting events in Vancouver, Canada, though they will be receiving highlight clips of two to six minutes each day from SBS for use on their news reports.

KBS had requested 12 accreditations to cover the Winter Games and MBC asked for eight, but with SBS saying it would allow them to send only three employees each, both networks gave up on the idea of sending journalists to cover the event.

SBS is currently continuing its talks with pay-television operators, such as cable networks and telecommunications companies operating Internet protocol television (IPTV) services, over the retransmission of its Olympic broadcasts. Although SBS is looking to provide its Olympic footage to cable channels for free, to quiet any doubts about its ability to provide universal coverage, it is insisting that the country's three IPTV operators ― KT, SK Broadband and LG Dacom ― should pay around 500 million won each for its Olympic content.

``We haven't decided whether we will be paying SBS or not for the Olympic broadcasts. It could be claimed that SBS is holding a double standard, asking only IPTV operators to pay up,'' said a KT official.

The failure to acquire broadcasting rights for the Games is a significant blow to KBS and MBC, especially when the performance of Korean figure skating starlet and television commercial queen, Kim Yu-na, may threaten to shatter records in viewer ratings.

Last month, KBS and MBC jointly filed for arbitration at the KCC, the country's converged regulator for broadcasting and telecommunications, questioning whether SBS's exclusive rights to broadcast the next few Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup tournaments is a violation of the local broadcasting law.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) awarded SBS the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games through 2016 following a bidding process in 2006. This caught KBS and MBC off guard, as the three major terrestrial broadcasters had previously agreed to an alliance and a bid of $63 million. SBS, which decided to break off at the last minute, landed the deal after bidding $72.5 million, much to the dismay of its rivals.

SBS also owns the exclusive broadcasting rights to the FIFA World Cup football tournaments through 2014.

In the complaint filed to the KCC, KBS and MBC claimed that SBS securing exclusive rights over the sporting events is a violation of the broadcasting law that mandates televisions stations to provide universal access. However, the law defines universal access as covering at minimum 90 percent of all Korean households, a criterion that SBS claimed it meets.